1831.] The Ravine of the Unbnried Bead. 71 



fatal chains ; while many a bird of prey, aroused for the first time in its 

 solitary haunts by human voice, added its screaming dirge to the wild 

 wail of despair which arose from those dying men. Days — ay, months 

 and years — rolled away ere those dismal shrieks ceased to haunt the ear 

 of Hernando di Valverde. With difficulty, as his giddy eye followed 

 the victims in their dizzy and headlong descent, could he keep his own 

 footing on the narrow shelf where he stood. Like one in a trance, he 

 held his head with his hands, and closed his eye to that sight of horror. 

 The shrieks died into a low wail ; the wail sunk into silence ; the sound 

 of those clashing irons became fainter and fainter, until they seemed 

 lost in the depths below. Hernando raised his head. No sight met his 

 eye save the shaggy rocks, overhanging precipices, and dark ravines of 

 that wild region ; no sound saluted his ear save the low and restless 

 murmur of some distant mountain torrent. A complete and deathlike 

 stilness reigned over the solitary scene. Hernando cast one brief glance 

 of horror into the dark abyss which entombed his former companions. 

 His eye sought in vain to penetrate its obscure and invisible recesses, 

 and, in speechless wonder at his own preservation, he lifted up his hands 

 to God. 



With steps still shaking from recent agitation, Hernando then began 

 to descend the mountain by the path his fated companions had so 

 recently trodden, when, all warm with life, and elated by hope, by 

 avarice, by ambition, they had pursued, as they believed, the road to 

 riches and worldly distinction : now, cold and shapeless masses, they 

 tenanted the dark and unapproachable gulf beneath him. Often, as he 

 proceeded on his downward path, he paused, and fancied that some 

 stifled shriek, some dying moan, some cry for help, still arose from that 

 dismal chasm. 



The death of the cruel, rapacious Juan, and those next him in com- 

 mand, placed the brave and popular Hernando at the head of his com- 

 patriots in that quarter ; and as such, he was received by the conster- 

 nated followers of Alcantara, who had been left, as we have seen, at 

 the foot of the fatal precipice. With the instinct of military habit, 

 rather than with any defined consciousness of the duty devolved on him, 

 Hernando reduced the astounded soldiers to something like professional 

 order, and proceeded in sombre silence to conduct them to the spot they 

 had quitted in the morning. 



Night closed on the party, and the fervour of a tropical sun had again 

 given place to the refreshing radiance of the moon, ere the plain of 

 — — — was within sight of the returning adventurers. Thought on 

 thought came crowding thick and fast into the mind of the young Spa- 

 niard, while he pursued his doubtful path. Horror for the retributive 

 fate of his wretched compeer ; pity for the high-minded Indian who had 

 fallen a victim to his patriotism, gave place, as he drew nearer his desti- 

 nation, to a feeling of anguish at the heavy tidings he must bear the 

 hapless daughter. Yet, even here, sweeter and gentler sensations stole 

 into the bosom of young Hernando. He now gratefully felt that the 

 departed cazique had, by a voluntary act, separated his fate from that of 

 his doomed compatriots ; and coupling this preservation with the words 

 of the Indian to his daughter — words which we may suppose Ualla had, 

 in some form or other, known how to communicate to her lover — he 

 could not but augur that, when time had dried the filial tears of the 



